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H. MACON.

SPINNING MULE. 7 .NO. 245,847. Patented Aug. 16,1881.

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UNITED STATES I PATENT OFFICE.

HEZEKIAH MACON, OF PAVVTUGKET, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR OF FIVE- EIGHTHS TO FRANKLIN P. WATSON AND JAMES F. WHALEN, BOTH OF SAME PLACE.

SPINNING-MULE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 245,847, dated August 16, 1881. Application filed March 9, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HEZEKIAH MACON, of Pawtucket, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Spinning-Mules; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention has reference to an improvement in machines for spinning cotton-yarn, known in the art as spinning-mules and it consists in the peculiar devices secured to the rail on which the carriage of the mule is trav- I 5 ersed, by means of which the carriage is arrested at each end of its traverse, as will be more fully set forth hereinafter.

The space between the rails of a mule-spinning machine is required for the attendant to move in freely, from one end to the other, to attend to the piecing up of any thread that breaks and to attend to other duties. Within this space, at the end of the traverse, a stop or steps are frequently placed to arrest the mule- 2 5 carriage. Such stops are objectionable, as the attendant is liable to be caught between the stop and the carriage. Stops have also heretofore been placed on the rails; but such stops, if they were rigid, were objectionable, in that 0 they arrested the carriage too suddenly and thus were liable to spring the driving-cylinder in the carriage, and with it some of the light spindles, or break the bands. If they were yielding they would cause the carriage to re- 3 5 bound and thus produce slack yarn, and would also cause kinks and if they were constructed to gradually arrest the carriage they prevented the free backing in and out of the same.

The present invention is designed to over- 0 come all these objections.

Figure 1 is a sectional view of a mule carriage mounted on rails, to the ends of which my improved stops are secured. Fig. 2 is an enlarged view, showing the stops as holding the carriage; and Fig. 3 is a view of the stop at right angles with the view of Fig. 2.

In the drawings, A represents the carriage of a spinning-mule; B B are the wheels on which it is mounted. U is the rail on which it is traversed. d d are pairs of pliers or two hinged arms, one of which, d, is adapted to be secured to the rail, and thus forms a fixed brackeLwhile the otherd (see Fig. 2,) is hinged on the first, and is provided with a long arm (the same as is usual in pliers) for firmly grasping and holding articles. To the mule-carriage the arms cc are secured, and these arms are provided with the pinsf, and the hinged pressers g g are also secured to the mule-carriage by hinging them to the arms h h in such a manner that the pressers can swing only through a short distance each way from the perpendicular, its movement being limited in one direction by its upper end coming in contact with the oblique upper face, h, of a stop, h, (see Fig. 2,) projecting from the end of said arm h, and its movement in the other direction being arrested by the part just below its pivot, striking the lower oblique face, h of said stop.

The operation of these improved stops is as follows: WVhen the carriage reaches nearly the end of its traverse the pin f encounters the short end of the hinged arm (1 and depresses the same, thereby raising the long arm against the presser g,which at first yields with the motion of the carriage, but graduallypresses the longer end of the arm (1 down, and thereby the short end firmer against the pinf,which at this stage encounters the inclined plane of the fixed arm d of the stop it, and arrests the carriage gradu- 8o ally but surely atthe desired point-,the presser being hinged in order that it may yield toward the carriage on being struck by the rising arm d and exert a gradually increasing though yielding resistance to the rising of said arm. 5 The instant that power is applied in the re verse direction to the carriage the pin f ceases to force the short arm or jaw of arm 01 downward, and the foot of the presser, owing to its light contact and the inclination of the upper 9 portion, slips slightly upon the long arm and its pressure thereupon immediately decreases. There is never any clamping action of the jaw sufficient to retain thepin f, but simply a gradually-increasing resistance to being forced downward by said pin.

This device can be accurately adjusted to give any desired resistance in various ways, among which are the adjusting of the fixed arm d on the rail, the adjustment of the arms 0 e roo on the carriage, or the raising or lowering of the arm h, by making the holes through which the bolts pass elongated, as is usual in similar devices.

This device is simple in construction, can be readily applied to any spinning-mule, and will properly release the carriage when the direction of the motion is reversed, as the curved feet of the pressers gg will slide along the downwardly-inclined edges of the arms (1 their downward pressure becoming lighter as the earriage moves and the pressers approach a vertical position and the pressure upon the pin f consequently instantly commencing to relax on the reversal of the movementof the carriage.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination, with the carriage of a spinningmule and the rail, of the stop 61 d,

each consisting of the fixed arm (2 and hinged arm (1 the pin f, and the arm projecting from the carriage for supporting said pin, and the hinged or swinging presser g, secured to a projection upon the carriage, substantially as described.

2. In a spinning-mule, the combination,with the carriage A, of the stops d, composed of fixed arms d and hinged arms 0?, the pins f, supported by arms projecting from the carriage, and the hinged pressers g, secured on the arms h projecting from the carriage and provided with stops to limit the swinging motion of the presser, substantially as described.

HEZEKIAH MACON.

Witnesses:

JOSEPH A. MILLER, J. A. MILLER, JR. 

